Social adjustment of children with and without learning disabilities in integrated classrooms.

The social adjustment of 46 children with learning disabilities (LDs) and 199 children without LDs who were integrated full-time in 3rd-grade classrooms was examined. No differences were found in the proportions of children with LDs and without LDs across accepted and unpopular sociometric groups. Two thirds of children with LDs had at least 1 reciprocal friend, and more than half had a friendship with a classmate without LDs. Girls with LDs received the highest number of negative nominations and were the least preferred. Group comparisons of socially adjusted and nonadjusted children, with and without LDs, showed that teachers perceived the socially adjusted children with LDs to be less socially and academically competent than adjusted children with LDs. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of educational setting and classroom composition on children's social adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)